Disclaimer- I do not own Harry Potter or anything affiliated with it.

I know I'm not the most attractive guy in the world, but I didn't think I could scare a girl.

At least not two times in a row.

All I had done was knock on the door and she slammed it in my face.

Sighing and turning, I began to walk grudgingly back to the Dursley's, not even noticing the sound of the door opening again behind me.

"S-sorry," came her voice quietly. "I've had a rough night." I spun on my heel to see her small body leaning on the doorframe; arms folded across her chest shyly. I suppose I must have been smiling, because when she looked at me she smiled too; distorting the disgusting bruise on her cheek until she winced and the smile dropped.

"Yeah. . ." I said quietly, shyness taking over suddenly. I can distinctly remember swearing in my mind and thinking, "Why do I decide to become a mute right when she decides to talk to me?"

I suppose it may have just been because flirting and girls have never been one of my strong points. Sure, plenty of them liked me at Hogwarts last year, but that was because of all the publicity I had picked up again recently. A million galleons says any normal girl wouldn't have stayed with me for more than an hour after attempting to talk to me.

Then again, there was Ginny . . . just thinking of her makes me shiver. I really do love her, you know? She's absolutely beautiful and she's smart, and funny, and I love talking to her (it amazes me that I actually can, sometimes). Part of me still wishes that I hadn't broken it off, but I know I had to. If she had been hurt because of me I don't know what I'd do.

Of course, that doesn't matter now; it's not like I'll ever see her again anyway. I don't care what Ron and Hermione say, they're not coming with me to find the Horcruxes or to face Voldemort. That's something I have to do myself.

So, of course, those thoughts brought up a whole new subject: Why was I even trying to befriend this girl anyway? It would just turn out the same as all of my other relationships; so why even bother? Until Voldemort is defeated, it's not like I can have anyone close to me anyway; they'd just end up getting hurt.

Pessimism had always been a friend of mine, and at that moment it was at one of its strongest victories over my thoughts. With all the pressure that had been put on me, I felt like I was about to burst. But when she started talking again, I immediately began to calm down. I don't know why it happened, but it did.

"So, do you want to come inside or something?" she asked, backing up and holding the door open, revealing a short hallway lined with several boxes. "I'm babysitting, so I totally understand if you don't want to." Her hair fell into her eyes as she let out a timid (and slightly frightened) laugh and kicked shyly at the floor.

"WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?" my subconscious screamed at me, "HE'S A BLOODY AXE MURDER! HE'LL KILL YOU AND YOUR FAMILY, YOU IDIOT!"

Luckily, throughout my sixteen years of life, I had learned to successfully ignore that subconscious and listen to my heart.

Not the ba-bum ba-bum heart, the other one- the one in my brain.

And right now that heart was saying, "He may be an axe murderer, but he seems nice enough to me."

Yeah, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be saying that when he killed me later on.

His footsteps echoed slightly on the side of the house as he came closer to me. When his shadow covered the cement in front of me and I could see the tops of his shoes, my breath caught in my throat. Other than the singing birds and the sound of my siblings in the kitchen, silence seemed to overtake the entire planet. Needless to say, I was scared shitless.

"Sorry," he soon whispered, making my breathing come back. "I probably shouldn't. I know what everyone thinks about me around here." He pushed the hair from my eyes as I looked up at him. The feel of his slightly calloused fingers lingering on my cheek made me shiver and I pulled away from the touch quickly.

Breathing heavily, I managed to choke out a quick "alright" before turning around and slamming the door in his face again.

That poor door was slammed quite a few times that day.

And she did it again.

Slammed the bloody door right in my face.

Sadly, I would be getting used to that soon enough.

Once again, I trudged grudgingly across the street to where I (unfortunately) lived, venting about the pretty girl who lived across the street.

I didn't even know her name, and already she was frustrating me. I was mostly to blame though, that slightly romantic action of pushing her bangs behind her ears would be enough to freak anyone out . . . especially if they already thought you were some kind of loon to begin with. So there I was, acting depressed about a girl I didn't even know, who probably hated me, and feeling sorry for myself, when a loud pop resounded down the entire street of Privet Drive.

Locking the door proved to be more difficult than I had previously thought. My hands were shaking wildly and my heart was beating as fast as the rapid beat in a techno song.

My hand clutched the fabric over the place where my heart was tightly in an attempt to calm myself. I had no idea guys could be so scary.

Out of all of the guys I had ever been around, only one of them made my heart beat that fast, and that was my father. Of course, that was usually from anger or fright, but it just proves my point. Sure, I was scared of the incredibly hot axe murderer; but not enough to give me a low-level heart attack.

Maybe it was the handsome danger of the boy, or just the fact that it was practically forbidden to be around him; but he made me feel frightened. . . in a good way. . .

Yeah, I don't completely understand either.

So, when I had finally almost got my heart rate back to normal, there was a loud sound outside that made me scream and fall to the floor.

It was probably just a car backfiring or something, but it scared the crap out of me.

This took me forever and a day to finish. Jeez. I feel so horrible that it took me so long! Plus it's insanely short! Sigh Oh well. Tell me what you think anyway!
-Lindley